My Little Ventrue Pt. 09 Ch. 08

That was a fucking terrifying thought. The curse, eating him up, driving him to the point of becoming a draugr, and then the curse taking over with its own manifested personality. Jack becoming Jack the Ripper permanently. Eesh.

"And you have absolutely no idea how you got rid of it."

Her grin could have cut glass. "No. Only that it was difficult."

Yeah he didn't believe that for a second. And she knew he didn't believe her. Hell, she seemed happy that he didn't believe her. If she was trying to be his teacher, to help build him up into a proper vampire capable of taking care of themselves by hardening him, exposing him to the nasty side of vampires in a way only someone close to him could, she was succeeding. He didn't like that.

He almost told her, about what Black Blood said. He almost told her because it ached at him so fucking bad that he couldn't trust her completely, and the naive part of him was willing to risk it, just to get the secret out of his throat. That naive, hopeful part of him was dying. The only thing keeping it alive, was Antoinette.

"Slept with her yet?" he asked.

Elaine blinked. "Mmm?"

"Isabella."

After a few seconds of stunned silence, Elaine laughed, hard enough her long, wavy blond hair gently bounced on her suit's shoulders.

"Come now Jack. Must you be so crass? Besides, when I am not spending my nights wrapped around you," she grinned at him all the more, "I am quite busy with my own affairs."

"Those affairs include Isabella."

"That does not mean I slept with her. Though when you reach my age, little Ventrue, you will come to realize how little that means."

He had a hard time imagining a future where he didn't think of sex as a big deal. But, then again, considering Antoinette and her kinks, it probably wouldn't be long before he thought of sex as nothing more than a stress relief tool... or a tool of manipulation. He wasn't sure if he liked that, either.

"Are we done here?" she asked. "If I had known you invited me here to interrogate me, I am not sure I would have come."

"If I'd known you'd be messing in Dolareido's affairs, I--"

"Messing in its affairs? Do not be so cruel! Dolareido is my friend's personal project, and I dare not dream of making life for her more difficult than it has to be." Her words dripped of sarcasm. Apparently, messing with other dragons' projects was something dragons did? Or maybe, it was just that Elaine and Antoinette had that sort of relationship where they felt comfortable challenging each other, and screwing with each other.

He'd known friends like that, usually dudes, who were just as likely to help each other as sabotage each other's efforts, usually as a playful joke. Camaraderie, but not the kind he'd ever pictured for himself. When he was human, he hadn't had a real good friend since he was super young, but even then, their friendship had been different from the other boys, because they didn't tease each other when they played games and whatnot. Jack just didn't like that sort of friendship, at least not then. Now, he could imagine teasing Damien about a few things, sure, but actually giving the man trouble as a sort of game?

Maybe he'd feel different in five hundred years. He doubted it.

"You dragons are unpredictable as all hell, you know that?"

"But of course." With a wink, she stood up, and stepped around the table's corner to stand in front of him. Before he could say anything, she took the shoulder of his chair and pulled it aside, pulling him out from under the table, and pointing him toward her. As much as Mulder and Scully were his devoted familiars, they both hopped off and onto the table, out of the way of the five-hundred-year-old vampire that was their master's ancestor, as she sat sideways on his lap.

"Elaine, what're you--"

"You may not understand me, Jack, but I have helped you, have I not?" She traced a finger along his neck. Sparks sizzled through him, and he turned his head to look away. Not good not good. "This necklace is a gift from me, to help you control the curse." She plucked at it a couple times, until he swatted her hand away.

"It also suppresses my Beast. Weakens me."

"True, but I wore it, long ago, so my journals tell me. It is safe." She teased her finger along his jugular before she plucked at the top button of his suit shirt. "I have not forgotten our conversation, about how terrible this entity inside your mind is. I have listened."

"But..."

"But? There is no but. I listened. I learned." She licked a fang as she leaned in closer. "I am not some monolith, devoid of reason, only capable of mindlessly pursuing my goals. While I do not expect, nor want you trust me completely, little Ventrue, I do expect you to respect me. I am intelligent. I am wise." Her lips touched his forehead, and he gulped.

"I believe it."

"Good. Now, tomorrow night I have time to spend with you and Ann and the girls. What should I wear? I was thinking, perhaps, a corset, with long gloves and thigh high stockings? And a thong, of course. You seem to love those."

He gulped again. God damn.

"Who doesn't?"

"Indeed. A woman's ass is the ultimate incarnation of beauty and allure." With another wink, she shifted on his lap, softly hooked the back of his neck with one arm, and rested her hand on top of her huge cleavage with the other. Of course she had the first few buttons of her suit shirt already undone, and from this close, there was no ignoring the black bra underneath, and how it was designed to show off her enormous breasts.

"Uh..." Push her off? Nah, there was no way she'd cross that line and try and start something with him, not without Antoinette here. If his girlfriend was here, sure, Elaine would do everything in her power to seduce him right in front of her. And Jack might even let her do it, just to see if he could make his girlfriend jealous, cause so far she was immune to the emotion.

But she wasn't here. Nothing Elaine could do would break him.

"Though you seem utterly infatuated with breasts."

"Yeah, I can't deny that."

"Undoubtedly your next thrall will be a busty woman."

"Should I really be picking thralls based on their cup size?"

"Of course not. But a city this large has many possibilities for thralls, ghouls, and future Kindred. Antoinette is simply taking your kinks into account."

He frowned and looked away. This was embarrassing.

"It's not like I only care about breasts." Ashley and Julee had small breasts, and he'd ravaged them on multiple occasions.

Elaine laughed, heartily at that, and with her free hand, cupped the underside of her breasts under her shirt, and bounced them. And for the fucking life of him, he couldn't help but stare at the soft flesh as it jiggled in her bra.

"Accept and enjoy your kinks. You will find life much more enjoyable."

"I guess..."

"You could find thralls yourself, but your lover is Prince. Perhaps in thirty or forty years you will develop an eye for them, but in the mean time, let the Prince help you. And let your girlfriend indulge her kink, which as you know, is to indulge your kinks."

That was definitely true. Antoinette was at her happiest and most sexually fulfilled when she was drowning him in sexual delights. Even the times he'd brought her to half a dozen orgasms and had her drenching the sheets, she didn't have quite the same twinkle in her eye as when she found some new way to pleasure him.

"And besides," she said, "I would enjoy recreating the nights Antoinette and I shared, oh so long ago. Dozens of legs intertwined, blood filling our bellies."

"I uh, not really sure--"

"There would be no other men there, of course, you selfish boy. Only women and yourself. Women, with mouths upon each other, fingers inside each other, a sea of breasts for you to drown in. You could have that, you know. With time and Ann to guide your choices, you could have half a dozen thralls to take care of your mansion and your desires alike in a year, maybe two. And more thralls and ghouls beyond that as the years go by. Most Ventrue do oh so love to grow a following, after all.

"Those stories Ann and I have shared with you would no longer be stories. Imagine it, Jack. Imagine the glory of a dozen, or two dozen. Thralls and ghouls, all hopelessly addicted to you, all eager to please you." Her smile had grown absolutely evil at this point, like a cartoon villain. "Antoinette and myself would be seated between them, caressing each other's bodies, while twenty women dripped blood into our mouths and suckled between our legs. You would wade through the women as they desperately tried to veer you off course, but you would press on until you found us. First, you take Antoinette. She gets on her hands and knees, and women bury her body in massaging hands and loving kisses, while two ghouls slide under her so they can suckle her breasts, as you penetrate her from behind. She climaxes immediately, drenching you. She's been waiting.

"And then I shove you! I mount you as you stumble back, and guide your cock into my ass. I grin down at you, my childe, and groan hungrily as I work myself to bliss. Your servants press their naked breasts against my back as they slip their hands around me to finger my empty sex. More join, suckling on my breasts. More and more come close, fingering each other as they struggle to find places around you. Until, perhaps a little angry with me, my old friend rejoins us. She turns me around and pushes me down, pressing my back to your chest. She climbs on top of me, and presses her naked body down onto me, grinding and--"

Jack pushed her off.

Elaine was ready for it, sliding off his lap seamlessly. She chuckled, a husky sound, and she dusted her shoulders off as she grinned down at him.

"You have a kink for being a trouble maker, don't you?" he said. "I mean, that and the usual Ventrue domination stuff."

"It is true. I cannot help myself."

"Well, mission succeeded, ok? All I can think of now is owning a harem and sharing it with Antoinette." Cause it was a damn sexy fantasy, and if his body was permanently that of a man in his early twenties, he doubted it was one he'd ever grow out of.

Chuckling again, Elaine stepped out of the room, and Jack rolled his eyes as he followed after her. Mulder and Scully flew to his shoulders and reclaimed their perches.

"I enjoyed this conversation, Jack. It lets me know you are far wiser and sharper than most men your age."

"I wonder about that."

"It is true." She winked at him, and opened the front door. "And, though you may not believe me, and it would serve me right if you did not after all I have said, I am... pleased, that you wish to trust me." Licking her lips, she walked down the front door stairs and down the street, and into the awaiting car, purposefully shaking her ass in her skirt the whole damn way.

If there was one way he was going to die, it'd be from trusting a femme fatale.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

~~Beatrice~~

Things had gotten very... shitty.

Triss, Jen, Aaron, and Othello, all stood on a rooftop in South Side, close to where the Carthians and Invictus shared a border. The Cloak of Night was generally good enough to keep vampires hidden in big open areas like this, but now that every vampire in the whole damn city was on high alert, maybe not. Skilled as she was at Obfuscate, Beatrice had to dial it up just so vampires blocks away didn't see them.

In the distance, Carthians patrolled their streets. In the opposite direction closer to the entertainment district, Invictus patrolled their streets. They were hidden, many using Cloak of Night, others hiding in cars or in the crowd, but with a pair of binoculars and four sets of eyes working together, Triss and her friends managed to spot a few of them.

"They're going to kill each other," Aaron said. "The moment one of these roving bands runs into the other, there's going to be a fight."

"In the street?" Jen asked. "Far too many kine around."

Othello shrugged. "A gunfight won't break the Masquerade."

Triss shook her head. "Yeah it will, cause there's no way the Invictus could suppress the police response enough to avoid having them intervene. Imagine, a gun fight in the streets, kine around, maybe getting hurt, and no cops show up? On top of that, the fuck would happen if one of any of the, you know, billion smart phones got a picture of a vamp getting a bullet in the neck, and then getting back up?"

"I guess you're right. I thought maybe the Beast would hide us from the cameras."

"A blurry face on a phone screen can only go so far. Christ, sometimes I think the Prince really has a point, you know? The crazier technology gets, the harder it's getting for us to stay hidden."

"Agreed," Jennifer said. "But I suppose there's two schools of thought on that. The Prince's, using cooperation to manage and mitigate. Or Jacob's..."

Triss snorted. "You mean bringing everyone back to the stone age?"

"I don't think he'd aim for the stone age. But... maybe before the internet."

Aaron raised a finger. "I'd be ok with that, I think."

"You?" Triss asked, looking right at the Gangrel. "Figured you'd be all 'oh it's the dawn of a new age!' and other poetic crap."

"The internet has become a cesspool of stupidity. Normally, stupid information dies off as newer, better information replaces it. Civilization grew smarter, and smarter, because information that proved more effective survived longer than the poor information. But that's not the case anymore. Now, we have a world where just zero-point-one percent of the population contributes in any meaningful way, and almost always as technological growth, while the rest of the population, barely smart enough to use a keyboard or smart phone, uses that technology to spread their idiocy."

"I--"

"God fucking forbid we let experts be the leading voice on topics. God fucking forbid we use our amassed historical knowledge as a guide on what mistakes to avoid. God fucking forbid we actually use the internet as an open forum for scientific pursuits across the world, instead of a megaphone for the loudest, most ignorant shitheads. God forbid--"

Triss set a hand on the man's shoulder. "Dude, dude, we get it. Holy shit."

Aaron, who'd been staring down at the streets below, had been slowly getting angrier and angrier, with full-on posture changes. For a second, he'd looked like an angry dog. Well, he was a Gangrel, but the man never showed it. He had far more in common with a Mekhet than any Gangrel. At least, he did, until now. Totally new side of him.

"He, uh, does make a good point," Jennifer said after putting a couple more inches between her and Aaron. "The technology boom, particularly the internet, has come with many negatives. Would it be so bad if the world went back to a place where exchanging information across distances became difficult? It'd be better for vampires, surely."

"Eh I dunno," Triss said. "It's hard to really analyze a problem that big, you know? Like, fuck, we're just minnows trying to understand the ocean. I say be and let be, and ride the waves as they come."

They all looked at her for a while before eventually nodding, and looking back to the streets below. It was a powerful statement, Triss thought, and a viewpoint she'd come to appreciate more and more as the months went on. A very Jacob way of looking at things. It was impossible to know everything, so do what you can, learn what you can, and ride the waves as they come. Don't let ignorance paralyze you, but keep an open mind to any and all information.

It was how witches did things, and it especially applied to crúac rituals. It was also probably how some witches stumbled into truly nasty shit and accidentally summoned Cthulhu or something. Ah well, no guts no glory.

"So, Aaron," Jen said. "We've yet to see your girlfriend."

"Yep."

"Will you bring her to us at some point?"

"Nope."

"Oh come on, Aaron. What do you think I'll do to her?"

The man gave Jen a look so deadpan, Triss snort-laughed hard.

"The same thing you did to Samantha."

"I did nothing to her! Well, other than a few sexual things, but those were harmless!"

Triss shook her head. "I uh, think we did a little more than that to her. We corrupted her." More like, the Circle corrupted everyone eventually, except for Aaron. "He probably wants to keep his girlfriend safe from evil lesbianism."

Jen shook her head. "I am no lesbian. I'm bisexual. So are you." She blew a playful breath at Triss, hard enough to make Triss's hair bounce against her cheeks.

"Same thing to a God-fearin' gun-totin' good man like Aaron." Othello winked at them before giving the Gangrel a loving pat on the back. "Give it up, Jen. I've been offering to share girls with Aaron since before either of you came around. He's not interested."

"Not everyone has to wear their sexuality on their sleeve," Aaron said, face still unfazed as he looked down below. "Or indulge in every kink known. I like my relationships quiet and private."

Aaron might like to keep his sex life vanilla, but he wasn't even remotely fazed by the stuff he saw in the Circle. Maybe it wasn't about his taste, and more about him not trusting the Circle to respect his relationship? It wasn't like Triss ever brought Julias back to fuck in the cave where everyone could watch, or maybe even participate. The idea of Othello or Aaron, especially Jacob, watching her make love with Julias, grossed her out.

Julias. Triss's laugh faded, and she looked down at the street below as old memories teased through her. With Jen's help, she'd done a good job moving on, letting the bite of those memories fade. But every night, Elen got closer and closer to creating a vessel for him, and to see Julias's face emerge in her creations tugged those memories right back up from the muck.

Talk with Black Blood, Elen, and Jacob had convinced Triss that if she wanted her man back, the vessel had to be good. Great. Damn well near perfect. If she didn't get the body right, his soul might reject it, like a kine body rejecting an organ transplant. Course, she had no idea if that'd happen, and the others didn't either, but Jacob had some nasty stories in his books, talking about weird shit like souls in the wrong body basically rotting the body apart, and other oddness. Elen didn't seem to know much about souls, but she talked about dumb shit like 'life energy' and how it knew where to go, and where not to go.

It was part of the reason Jacob had given up on resurrecting Minerva. He had no way to get her a body. Black Blood and him said they were going to put her in a jar, or maybe a mannequin or something, and had even worked toward making her an undead body, but neither of them figured it'd be able to hold her. It wouldn't match, wouldn't fit. But with Elen's help, they could make it fit. Once Julias's soul was in the body, the flesh witch could work her magic, and make it work.

It was a good plan. It was a great fucking plan, except for one giant glaring issue she couldn't figure out. How to rip a soul out of the god damn afterlife. If Jacob and Black Blood were right, she'd have to do it with some giant sacrifice that killed thousands, maybe hundreds of thousands of people. And even then she'd need the help of someone that could... understand souls? Someone that could do more than just grab at things with fingers and a thumb. She needed someone like Black Blood.

It really did seem fucking pointless to try. If she was onto something, if it could really work, Jacob wouldn't just be answering her questions, he'd be throwing himself at the project. The man had known and loved Minerva longer than Triss had Julias, so wouldn't he go crazy psycho excited and do anything in hopes of seeing her again? No, he'd given up on the idea, and was damn convinced Beatrice would fail.